Reflections on Presumed Incompetent: the Intersections of Race and Class for Women in Academia Symposium - the Plenary Panel
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Florida A&M University College of Law Scholarly Commons @ FAMU Law Journal Publications Faculty Works Summer 2014 Reflections on Presumed Incompetent: The Intersections of Race and Class for Women in Academia Symposium - The Plenary Panel Maritza I. Reyes Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://commons.law.famu.edu/faculty-research Part of the Civil Rights and Discrimination Commons, Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons, Law and Gender Commons, Law and Race Commons, and the Law and Society Commons Recommended Citation Reyes, Maritza I., Angela Mae Kupenda, Angela Onwuachi-Willig, Stephanie M. Wildman, Adrien Katherine Wing, Reflections on Presumed Incompetent: The Intersections of Race and Class for Women in Academia Symposium - The Plenary Panel, 29 Berkeley J. Gender L. & Just. 195 (2014) This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Faculty Works at Scholarly Commons @ FAMU Law. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal Publications by an authorized administrator of Scholarly Commons @ FAMU Law. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Reflections on Presumed Incompetent: The Intersections of Race and Class for Women in Academia Symposium-The Plenary Panel Maritza I. Reyest Angela Mae Kupendatt Angela Onwuachi-Willigttt Stephanie M. Wildmantttt Adrien Katherine Wingttttt t Associate Professor of Law, Florida A&M University College of Law. tt Professor of Law, Mississippi College School of Law. ttt Charles and Marion Kierscht Professor of Law, University of Iowa College of Law. tttt John A. and Elizabeth H. Sutro Professor of Law and Director, Center for Social Justice and Public Service, Santa Clara University School of Law. ttttt Bessie Dutton Murray Professor of Law, University of Iowa College of Law. BERKELEY JOURNAL OF GENDER, LAW & JUSTICE 195 196 BERKELEY JOURNAL OF GENDER, LAW & JUSTICE ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................. 196 L.INTRODUCTION-PROFESSOR REYES........................ ........ 198 II.OPENING REMARKS-PANELISTS .......................... ..... 201 A. Facing Down the Spooks-Professor Kupenda .............. 201 B. Silence of the Lambs-Professor Onwuachi-Willig .... ...... 204 C. Working across Racial Lines in a Not-So-Post-Racial World- Professor Wildman.................................. 210 D. Lessons from a Portrait: Keep Calm and Carry On-Professor Wing............................................ 213 III.QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS .............................. ..... 215 A. The Rule of Silence ............................ ...... 215 B. Women of Color, Color Insight, Silence and Regrets, and the False Self. ......................................... 219 1. Women of Color ..................................... 219 2. Color Insight ........................................ 220 3. Silence and Regrets......................... 221 4. The False Self ........................ ........... 222 C. Mentors ................................................. 224 D. Fighting Isolation, Writing Pre-Tenure, Privileged but Still Silenced, and Problematic Silences ...................... 228 1. Fighting Isolation .......................... ....... 228 2. Writing Pre-Tenure .................................. 229 3. Privileged but Still Silenced... ................................ 231 4. Problematic Silences ......................... ..... 233 E. People of Color and the Torture Model ................. 235 F. After Tenure and Other Questions ....................... 240 IV.CLOSING REMARKS-PROFESSOR REYES.. ...................... 245 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Maritza 1. Reyes: It has been a privilege to be a part of this Presumed Incompetent symposium and to work with a group of renowned scholars and law professors in preparation for the plenary panel and for this Article. I thank Professor Angela Mae Kupenda, Professor Angela Onwuachi-Willig, Professor Stephanie M. Wildman, and Professor Adrien Katherine Wing for sharing their experiences and perspectives. I learned much through reading their stories, listening to their words of wisdom, and collaborating with them prior to, during, and after the panel. I was surprised when the group decided that my name should be listed as the first co-author of this Article and humbly accepted the group's decision with much gratitude. I thank Professors Angela P. Harris and Carmen G. Gonzdlez for selecting me to moderate the plenary panel. I also thank Professor Gonzalez for her continued encouragement and support. I honor God and my ancestors (dead and alive) for giving me the fortitude to remain true to my convictions. Like bell hooks, since childhood, I fed "the indomitability of REFLECTIONS ON PRESUMED INCOMPETENT 197 spirit that writing [and living] as an independent thinker would require."' I thank my home institution for providing travel funds that assisted my attendance at the symposium. A mis hilos les agradezco su apoyo incondicional y consejos siempre positivos-ustedes contimian siendo mi inspiraci6n. Finalmente, a mi madre, que siempre me ha acompaihado en las buenas y en las malas, le dedico mi contribuci6nen estas pcginas. Angela Mae Kupenda: I deeply appreciate the editors of Presumed Incompetent: Professors Gabriella Gutidrrez y Muhs, Yolanda Flores Niemann, Carmen G. Gonzalez, and Angela P. Harris. I am grateful to the Symposium of the Berkeley Journal of Gender, Law & Justice for including contributors of Presumed Incompetent. And, I greatly appreciate our entire plenary panel of wonderful academics and especially the panel moderator, Professor Maritza Reyes, whose probing and insightful questions compelled me to reconsider and reclaim my active role in the path toward justice in the legal academy. My responses here benefited greatly from: advice given to me over the years by my phenomenal mentors, including my dear mother Minnie L. Perkins Dorsey Moore and Boston College Law School Professor Emerita Ruth-Arlene H. Howe; feedback from the 2013 STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, including Social Sciences) Women of Color Conclave, sponsored by a generous grant from the National Science Foundation, which funded my participation and that of other contributors to Presumed Incompetent; and wise, discerning observations of our Conclave plenary panel moderator, Dr. Kelly M. Mack, who thoughtfully guided us through an honest and provocative discussion of Presumed Incompetent. I appreciate the support of faculty scholarship from Mississippi College School of Law, which provides pre- publication and post-publication grants. Angela Onwuachi- Willig: I thank Kelley Winebold for her assistance on this project and Dean Gail Agrawal and Charles and Marion Kiescht for their support of my research. I also thank Angela P. Harris, Carmen G. Gonzalez, Gabriella Gutidrrez y Muhs, and Yolanda Flores Niemann, the editors of Presumed Incompetent: the Intersections of Race and Class for Women in Academia (2012), for allowing me to be a part of this project; it has been my great honor to be included in this important conversation. Additionally, I thank my co-panelists, Professors Angela Mae Kupenda, Maritza Reyes, Stephanie Wildman, and Adrien Wing, for being phenomenal women and teaching me much throughout our panel and this entire process. I especially thank Professor Maritza Reyes, whose contributions to this panel and this paper have been nothing short of extraordinary. Thank you, Maritza, for steering and guiding us 1. Margaret E. Montoya, Silence and Silencing: Their Centripetal and Centrifugal Forces in Legal Communication, Pedagogy and Discourse, 5 MICH. J. RACE & L. 847, 872 (2000) (citing bell hooks, Talking Back, in GLORIA ANZALDOA, MAKING FACES, MAKING SOUL: HACIENDO CARAS 207-08 (1990)). 198 BERKELEY JOURNAL OF GENDER, LAW & JUSTICE so well. Finally, I thank my husband Jacob Willig-Onwuachi and our children, Elijah, Bethany, and Solomon for their constant love and support. Stephanie M Wildman: Thanks to Ellen Platt, research librarian extraordinaire, for superb library support; Hazella Bowmani, for outstanding research assistance and editorial acumen; and to my sister panelists in this symposium, especially Professor Maritza Reyes for her conceptual and organizational work on this project. Thanks as well to the Presumed Incompetent editors and to Margalynne Armstrong for being my colleague, chapter co-author, and best critic for almost two decades. Adrien Katherine Wing: I would like to thank my assistant Kelley Winebold and my research assistants and colleagues for their help with this project. Also, many thanks to the editors of Presumed Incompetent: The Intersections of Race and Classfor Women in Academia for including me in the project-Professors Angela P. Harris, Carmen G. Gonzdlez, Gabriella Gutidrrez y Muhs, and Yolanda Flores Niemann. Finally, thanks to Professor Maritza Reyes for moderating the opening plenary and thanks to my dear colleagues on the plenary, Professors Angela Mae Kupenda, Angela Onwuachi-Willig, and Stephanie Wildman. I. INTRODUCTION-PROFESSOR REYES2 Presumed Incompetent was produced thanks to the vision and commitment of its editors: Dr. Gabriella Gutidrrez y Muhs, Dr. Yolanda Flores Niemann,4 Carmen G. Gonzilez,5 and Angela P. Harris.6 This symposium came to fruition because the Berkeley Journal of Gender, Law & Justice invited the two law professor editors, Professor Harris and Professor Gonzdlez, to convene a distinguished group of scholars from Canada and the United States to expand and deepen the